


School's Out (For The Foreseeable Future)

by cariad_scribe



Series: Locked-down [4]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Multi, basically me purging my lockdown feels in a fic, but they're also in denial, liv and rafa are in love, this is a lockdown series, won't be canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:21:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cariad_scribe/pseuds/cariad_scribe
Summary: The running of the house changes slightly when everyone is suddenly forced to start working from home.
Relationships: Rafael Barba & Noah Porter Benson, Rafael Barba/Olivia Benson
Series: Locked-down [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168718
Comments: 10
Kudos: 42





	School's Out (For The Foreseeable Future)

“I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand?”

“I know that its inconvenient Ms. Benson, but we’re becoming more and more short-staffed each day. Of course Noah is considered a special student, what with you being an essential worker, so he’s more than welcome to keep coming to classes. But I also understand he’s had some health issues in the past?”

Olivia had been having yet another less than productive day. The run of things from the DA’s office was slow, she had a pile of paperwork stacked up on her desk and there were at least three open cases that didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast- not including the domestic violence victim they had been trying to help since last week.

She’d sequestered herself away in her office, to try and get the paperwork stack down to a more manageable pile, but had only got so far before her phone started ringing.

“Yes,” Olivia replied to the head teacher. “When he was an infant- he’s healthier now, but still asthmatic.”

“I see. Well of course this is ultimately your decision as the parent, Ms. Benson, so I will let you think on it. I just thought it was better to let you know what was happening.”

“Thank you,” Olivia said, pinching her forehead. “I appreciate that.”

She dropped her phone back down on her desk and sighed.

More and more parents were taking their children out of school. At least half a dozen of Noah’s classmates had started learning from home, not to mention the amount of staff who were deciding to shield. The teachers were doing what they could to keep everyone safe during the pandemic, but Olivia was aware they weren’t trained for these situations and there was no guarantee. She had only kept Noah in this long because she didn’t know how home-schooling could possibly work with her own difficult shift-pattern.

“Hey Liv, we got a hit on the fingerprints in the Malone case,” Amanda told her from the crack she’d opened in the door. Olivia lifted her head to look at the blonde detective, nodding.

“Great, go get him.”

“Kat’s already left with Fin,” Amanda explained, coming to stand in the doorway properly. “I’m waiting to hear from the M.E. about the Jane Doe from last night. You ok?”

Amanda must have noticed her harried expression, so Olivia smiled grimly.

“Has Jesse’s school said anything about home-schooling?”

“Not that I know of.” Amanda answered. “But she’s not there every day, so maybe they don’t think it’s necessary? Why, has Noah’s school closed?”

Olivia pushed away from her desk, leaning back to stretch out the tight muscles in her back and legs.

“Not exactly? Maybe? I don’t know,” she sighed. “I don’t want to take Noah away from school, but I also don’t want to jeopardize his health. But how can I home-school him when I’m here all the time?”

Amanda gave an apologetic smile and a half-shrug.

“I wish I could give you an answer. Would Lucy be able to help?”

“She has her own schooling to worry about too; I don’t want to take up all her time.” Olivia explained, picking her pen back up just so she had something to do with her hands. “Sorry Amanda, I didn’t mean to unload all of this on you.”

Amanda smiled again and waved her hand.

“Nah, its fine. Kids, though right? Who’d have ‘em?” Olivia made a noise of agreement as the detective went to leave. “Hey, maybe you could ask Barba? He’s still staying with you- could be his way of paying rent.”

Olivia watched Amanda leave her office, both throwing out her suggestion as ridiculous, and also wondering if there was a world in where it might just work.

~~~~

“Teaching?”

“It would be a six-month contract, to cover for one of our faculty members who is about to go on an extended maternity leave. She’s had some health issues, will be signed-off a little while just before and after she has the baby. You wouldn’t be expected to cover any more than that.”

“I see what you’re saying Professor,” Rafael replied, pacing in little circles around the coffee table. “But I’ve never had to give much more than a seminar at a legal conference before, I’m not sure I’m entirely equipped-,”

“Given your track record with the DA’s office, not to mention your pre-graduate work, I would have to disagree with you on that Mr Barba.”

Rafael grimaced- he’d had people say flattering things many times throughout his career, but it was usually something that came just before a request for a favour, or a thinly veiled threat. He wasn’t used to the genuine compliments that sometimes occurred.

He had formerly left his work in Iowa a few days before. It was clear he wasn’t going to be getting anything else from them, despite all their best attempts, so he’d been half-halfheartedly looking for other work for the best part of the week. Rafael knew he wanted to do something, but nothing like what he had been doing in the DA’s office was available (not that he was entirely convinced they would take him back anyway, after what happened.) He was beginning to realize that, with a first-class law degree from Harvard and over twenty years as a New York City prosecutor, he was vastly over-qualified for most positions.

Though, apparently, he was not so over-qualified for a temporary teaching position at Fordham- as he was currently being told by the head of faculty, who’d called him that afternoon, quite out of the blue.

“It’s one thing practicing law- it’s quite another thing teaching it to university students.” Rafael quipped.

“Detective Carisi actually spoke very highly of your tutoring,” the professor from Fordham continued, choosing to ignore Rafael’s arguments. “He told us your mentoring was invaluable to him, in terms of getting his qualifications.”

Rafael didn’t really know who to respond to that. He knew Carisi had been almost over-eager in his praise of Rafael’s tutelage, but he hadn’t realized that it had made its way back to Fordham. He almost felt embarrassed.

“Detective Carisi has been known to exaggerate.”

“Mr Barba, either you’re being uncharacteristically modest or deliberately argumentative just to get me to put the phone down. I’ll tell you now, it won’t work.” Rafael swore in his head. “You are one of the most talented prosecutors the DA’s office has ever seen, you have impeccable references and your work with the Special Victim’s Unit here in Manhattan would be an incredible asset to our teaching programme- even if it is just for these six months.”

“Well- uh… thank you.” Rafael felt awkward, standing in Olivia’s sitting room and being told how brilliant he was by a perfect stranger. “But I’m just not completely-,”

“Look, my office hours start soon, so how about this? You take a couple of days to think about it, crunch the numbers, talk it over with whoever you need to talk it over with. Whatever you decide- and I do hope you say yes- you just give me a call and let me know.”

“Alright,” Rafael answered, somewhat reluctantly.

“No pressure,” the professor insisted, though the lawyer couldn’t help but silently disagree. “I’ll respect your decision either way.”

“Thank you.” Rafael replied, just before they hung up on him. He stood motionless on the rug, holding his phone and frowning.

~~~~

Olivia pulled another slice of pizza from the box on the counter in the kitchen and put in on a Lion King themed plastic plate, next to a couple of cucumber sticks in a last-ditch attempt to offset some of the grease.

Neither her nor Rafael had been able to organize dinner, both wrapped up in their own personal dilemmas, and had made the joint decision to just order a pizza in. They’d probably be hungry again in an hour, but the hot cheese and doughy carbs were exactly the kind of comfort all three of them needed.

She carried three plates back towards the living room (eating at the table had also been suspended for the evening), where the little boy and his favourite Uncle were sat discussing the pros and cons of being able to fly.

“You could see up really high, and make friends with all the birds,” Noah told Rafael, sat on his knees on the couch cushion.

“That’s only any good if you like birds,” Rafael debated, taking his plate from Olivia and pushing over a glass of wine he’d poured out for her. “I don’t really want to be friends with pigeons, personally.”

“You’re only saying that because one shi- _pooped_ on your suit jacket that one time.” Olivia pitched in, putting Noah’s plate down on the coffee table before taking a seat the other side of him. “And you had that meltdown about your spare jacket not matching for court.”

“It was not a meltdown-,” Rafael argued.

“A pigeon pooped on you?” Noah exclaimed, already laughing around a mouthful of pizza. “That’s so funny! Did you laugh Momma?”

“She did,” Rafael answered for her. “A bit too much, if you ask me.”

“It was your little face,” she replied, eyes sparkling with humour. “Pouting, like an adorable angry baby.”

Rafael narrowed his eyes at her, whilst Noah continued cackling.

“Babies don’t wear suits Mom.” he told her, cheeks red with laughter.

“Not unless they have to be in court.” Rafael said, taking a bite out of his own slice and sharing a cheeky smile with the boy sat next to him.

Later that evening, after Olivia had bathed Noah and put him to bed, the two adults joined each other again on the sofa to half-halfheartedly watch an episode of some cooking competition on the Food Network and get through some more of Olivia’s paperwork. Technically, Rafael wasn’t supposed to be looking at it- but she’d long ago got into the habit of thinking out loud around him and he wasn’t very good at not responding.

“A warrant for his laptop wouldn’t be difficult to get, considering the allegations,” Rafael told her, from one end of the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table. “With any luck he’d be arraigned by the end of the month.”

Olivia scribbled something on the corner of a piece of paper, glasses slipping down the end of her nose as she nodded. She was sat at the other end of the couch, knees tucked up so she could rest the files on them to read.

“One less thing to worry about then,” she signed, putting her pen down and pushing her glasses up on top of her head. Rafael looked at her.

“Something you wanna talk about?”

Olivia smiled to herself; he always was good at reading her moods.

“I’m thinking of taking Noah out of school.”

Rafael’s eyebrows raised in obvious surprise.

“Seriously?”

“Not permanently,” she clarified, holding one palm up. “Just for the time being, whilst… all this is happening.” Rafael calmed slightly, understand what she was getting at. “His head teacher was telling me about the protocols they have in place. And I want him to be where he can learn best…”

“But?”

“All I kept thinking about today was when he was small, and he was in and out of hospital,” Olivia explained. “It took so long for him to just be well and healthy- the last thing I want is for him to get sick again.”

“Nobody wants that,” Rafael assured her, sitting up a little straighter so he could face her properly. “You’re the one who knows what’s best for him.”

“I know,” she replied, though not entirely sure of herself. “But home-schooling… it’s not exactly feasible with my work schedule right now.”

“I don’t think it’s feasible with many people’s work schedules,” he said. “But if there’s anyone who can make it happen it’s you Liv.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence,” she told him, moving to put the files down on the floor and reaching back for her second glass of wine. “Never mind me, for a minute. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“How’s the job search going?”

Rafael opened his mouth, but the answer came out as less of a sentence and more of an elongated noise that went some of the way to explaining his predicament.

“Not as well as I would have hoped. It’s been a long time since I had to look for work.”

“Is it making you feel young again?” Olivia joked, sipping her wine.

“The opposite, if anything.” Rafael answered. “I’m considerably over-qualified, don’t you know.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows and smirked.

“Well twenty years being an incredibly successful ADA will do that to you. You haven’t found _anything_ you could do?”

Rafael grimaced. He lowered his feet from the table and reached forward for his glass of scotch, deliberating whether or not to tell her about his conversation with the Fordham professor. He’d been stewing over it all day.

“Rafael?”

“Fordham Law called me earlier. They offered me a temporary teaching position; covering maternity.” He heard her intake of breath from the other end of the couch, so he turned to face her again. “Apparently Carisi talked about me so much they simply had no choice but to call.”

His attempt at a joke fell flat, because she already had her patented ‘Olivia Benson, determined to solve a problem’ face on.

“Teaching?” she repeated. “Wow. Is that something you’d ever considered doing before?”

“I was originally hoping to be one of those grumpy old men still arguing with judges well past retirement age,” Rafael replied. “Or being one of the grumpy old judges themselves, whatever came first.”

_El juez_ , his grandmother had called him. She had been his biggest champion, so sure of his life path he hadn’t needed to be. Whatever he was going to be in the future, it wouldn’t be what she had dreamed up for him anymore.

“You taught Carisi a lot,” Olivia told him, interrupting his thoughts.

“Yeah but he was a captive audience,” Rafael argued, rolling the glass around slightly on his knee. “It was like asking a golden retriever puppy ‘ _who’s a good boy_ ’.”

“I’m gonna tell him you said that.”

“I just don’t know why they’d want _me_ to do it, I have no teaching experience.” Rafael caught himself before Olivia could interrupt again. “I know, I know, Carisi aside.”

“They want _you_ , because you’re the best lawyer in New York.” she exclaimed, swatting him on the shoulder. “And you’ve done good things, helped people- and used the law in ways other people wouldn’t have the guts to.”

She had a certain amount of fire in her eyes that he hadn’t seen since they’d been working together. It had been an equally long time since he’d been on the receiving end of it.

“I _used_ to be the best lawyer in New York. Now I’m just an unemployed man sleeping on his friend’s couch.”

“The students won’t know that.” Olivia continued. “Nor should they care even if they did.” Rafael took a deep breath, lowering his eyes to his drink rather than looking at her. “I think you’d be brilliant. But only you can make that decision.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence.”

The two friends shared a soft look. With only the lamp in the corner of the room providing any source of light, both of their eyes were shining- perhaps also a side-effect of the alcohol. They weren’t sat particularly close on the couch- there were a few files and a cushion between them- but if they wanted, it would only take one outstretched hand to make some kind of contact. In her head, Olivia was already half-way to making an attempt at reaching for his hand- but her thought process was interrupted by the sudden loud noise of her phone vibrating against the coffee table.

It was a text from Amanda, letting her know that Jesse’s school was switching to online learning as of next week. The other woman explained that she was going to pay her sitter over-time to deal with that whilst Amanda was at work. It settled things in Olivia’s mind.

“Jesse’s going to have to start home-schooling next week,” she informed Rafael. “I think I’ll pull Noah out at the same time.”

“Alright.”

“I know it’s not ideal, what with you being here-,”

“Olivia this is _your_ home.” Rafael argued, shaking his head. “Don’t try and organize things around me, I’m taking up the space here. Do what you have to do.”

She turned to look at him again, and, not for the first time since they had become friends, threw him a grateful smile.

~~~~

At first, things worked out surprisingly well. Though Noah had been initially upset and confused about the need for him to stay home from school, he’d seemed to eventually grasp the general idea; that there were bad germs outside that were easy to catch if you weren’t very careful, and to keep him and his friends as safe as possible, it was better to stay at home for a little while. Olivia didn’t think he would be half as willing if Rafael wasn’t still staying with them.

Rafael accepted the job from Fordham. He realized that- for the time being at least- he wasn’t going to get a better offer, and at least it would be something different to add to his CV in a few months’ time. When he’d told his mother, she had been surprisingly excited; two educators in the family was something she could brag about to her friends without any uncomfortable questions, unlike his previous work with SVU.

He had a little less than a month to organize his lessons, get a feel for the curriculum he would have to follow and mentally prepare for the prospect of being on display as a mentor to the next generation of lawyers.

In short, he was shitting himself.

His only initial plan had been to return to his mother’s house once teaching began. He would be out of the way of Noah’s schooling, and it would be easier to deliver lessons in an otherwise unoccupied space.

That idea had however been nipped quickly in the bud when the super of the building called him to explain that in their refurbishment of the pipes in the basement, the workers had also managed to cut off all landline and Wi-Fi cables and they were now having to wait for the providers to send their own technician out to assist in the fixing of this new problem.

So Rafael was still a house guest, but he and Olivia had managed to figure out a plan for the working day that seemed to be sensible; Lucy would arrive at the apartment in the morning before Olivia left, get Noah settled at the desk in his room with his mother’s iPad and go through his schoolwork with him. That left Rafael with the dining table in the living room, and when he was done he would make dinner for everyone- Lucy would stay to put Noah to bed if Olivia didn’t manage to get home in time.

The Benson household managed one whole week of home-schooling before things went somewhat off-track.

Olivia had to leave early one morning, to make it to a meeting at 1PP with Dodds and some other senior NYPD officials. Noah ate breakfast with Rafael whilst they waited for Lucy to arrive. But, unusually, the nanny didn’t appear until an hour after Olivia had left.

“I’m so sorry Mr Barba,” Lucy apologized, rushing into the apartment with flushed cheeks. “I’m never late like this- I think I lost my MetroCard, I couldn’t find it this morning and my roommate was having another asthma attack last night.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Rafael told her, taking her coat as she hurried to get herself settled. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, really. I don’t want you to think I’m making excuses, I’m never this disorganized.”

“Lucy, please don’t worry about it. I got Noah set up with the iPad, but to be honest I wasn’t exactly sure what he needed to do, so I’ve just left him to get on with what he could.”

Lucy nodded, gathering her large purse back up and heading off to the boy’s bedroom- still looking a little too on edge for Rafael’s liking, but he knew it wasn’t his place to say anything further. He put the kettle on to make her a coffee and settled back in to his work.

A little while later, when the group broke for lunch, Lucy didn’t seem any less anxious. Rafael silently watched her call someone multiple times whilst Noah sat on the couch and ate his sandwich.

“Is everything ok?”

“I can’t get hold of Liv,” Lucy explained, her shoulders held tense.

“She’s in a meeting all day; she probably put her phone on silent.” Rafael replied, turning away from his laptop fully to face her. “Is it something I can help with?”

“It’s my roommate, she’s really not well. I think she might…” Lucy stood slightly closer to the lawyer, lowered her voice so Noah wouldn’t hear. “I think she might have caught it. She’s needs to get a test, her chest is really bad.”

“Do you want to go and see her?”

“I think I should but…” Lucy looked over to Noah, who was watching TV, oblivious to anything else. “I’m worried if I leave I won’t be able to come back. I don’t want to expose Noah.”

Rafael felt instantly bad for her. She was so dedicated to the boy, was practically family by this point and he could feel how worried she was about the whole situation. But how on earth was he supposed to weigh in on the running of a household that ultimately had nothing to do with him?

~~~~

“I can’t sit in on another 1PP meeting,” Olivia groaned, coming out from the bedroom having changed into comfier clothes the minute she got home. “I thought I’d get more patient the older I got, but if anything my fuse is shorter when it comes to all those men in suits.”

“All men in suits?” Rafael inquired from the kitchen. He had dressed in his work clothes for the first time in a while that morning, so he could give a good impression on the Skype meeting he’d had with the Fordham faculty.

“Yes, Rafael, all men in suits.” she repeated, taking her glass of wine from him. “You in particular many times, need I remind you.”

“Not necessary, I remember very well what it feels like to be on the receiving end of your temper.”

_And how much there was a part of me that always enjoyed it_ , he finished in his head.

“I’m worried about Lucy.” Olivia told him as they both went to sit in the living room, with reheated noodles and veg that Rafael had thrown together earlier.

“She seemed really stressed out.”

“I don’t blame her,” Olivia replied, stabbing a slice of pepper with her fork. “She works so hard and her roommate seems really sick.”

“Do you think she’s going to have to stop coming here?” Rafael asked her, taking a sip of wine.

“I can’t ask her to split herself all over the city- she’d got her own classes, as well as helping Noah. And if her roommate really does have it…”

“She can’t come anyway.” Rafael finished. “What do you want to do with Noah?”

Olivia paused for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. She pushed the food around her plate whilst Rafael waited for her to respond.

“Dodds told me I could work from home. That Fin is senior enough to take over in my absence.”

“Not trying to get rid of you is he?”

Olivia raised an eyebrow that suggested she’d not ruled it out.

“Perks of being Captain I guess.” she quipped. “It was kinda what the meeting was about- trying to manage regular policing around this virus.”

Rafael didn’t envy the people tasked with having to figure that out. He couldn’t imagine how court cases were even going to operate when social distancing was coming into play more and more as the days went on.

“So are you going to? Work from home that is?” he asked her.

“I don’t really have much choice, now I’m without childcare.”

“Well I’m here if you need me.” he told her, twirling noodles around his fork. She scoffed around a mouthful of her own food and rolled her eyes.

“Rafael, you’re about to start a new job. I can’t ask you to help with Noah on top of that.”

“You’re not asking me to, I’m offering.” he corrected.

“Well stop offering, it’s not happening. I don’t want to be the reason you can’t do your job properly.”

_Oh if only you knew how far from the truth that was_ , Rafael thought to himself, avoiding her gaze.

“Look, I didn’t want to be still in the way of you, but I can’t go back to my mother’s whilst the hot water and the Wi-Fi is still broken. Noah’s childcare isn’t going to plan right now and you’re going to have to work from home at least a few days a week.” he spoke down at his plate, a little scared to look her in the eye. “This is where we are. I’m going to help in whatever way I can, because otherwise I’m just a squatter with an expensive wardrobe you’ll come to resent.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Olivia’s shoulders slump as she dropped her fork down onto the plate. She was giving up the fight, albeit reluctantly.

“I don’t like not being in control.” she murmured.

“Believe me, I know.” Rafael replied.

“We’re all going to be in the house together all of the time.” she added.

“I know that too.”

Olivia turned her head just enough to look at him again.

“Sure you that doesn’t make you want to run screaming?” she asked.

Rafael shrugged, trying his best to appear nonchalant. Wearing his suit again gave him the extra confidence boost to do so.

“Don’t have all that many places to run to, at the moment. Or many other places I’d rather be.” Olivia titled her head, made a face that was somewhere between touched and disbelieving. Rafael fixed her a smirk, then added; “Well except maybe on a yacht.”

He dodged just in time to avoid being pelted with a sofa cushion.

~~~~

“…which is why you all need to read, and make notes on, the three chapters I sent you- by next Monday, because we’ll be discussing what you’ve written in the seminar then.”

“Do you need us to send you the notes?” one of the students asked.

“No,” Rafael replied. “But I will be able to tell if you haven’t made any. Give me the Sparknotes version and you’ll just be getting more work to do over the holidays.”

A couple of the students rolled their eyes, but the majority seemed to receive his threat with affectionate exasperation- which, if Rafael was being honest with himself, was historically his sweet spot.

At first, attempting to have any sense of wisdom or authority when your entire class was laid out on the screen like The Brady Bunch, felt like an impossible task to Rafael. If he was physically standing in front of them, able to look them in the eye properly, he knew he would feel more confident at his ability to come across as someone to be listened to and respected.

But the class was smaller than he anticipated, and eager to learn for the most part. Any reservations they might have had about him (as a usurper to their regular teacher) seemed not to manifest themselves. His reputation had preceded him and not in a bad way. So far, not one of them had mentioned the Householder case, which had been the biggest of all his fears. Whether that was because they didn’t care, or if they simply were too scared to say anything he didn’t know.

“Is it the PDF?” another student asked, peering at her screen to seemingly check her email inbox.

“Yes, it should be in the last email I sent-,”

“Uncle Rafa, can you help me with the printer?” said a small voice, cutting off his sentence halfway.

Noah was stood beside him, holding the iPad he’d been doing his school work on outwards, gesturing to a work sheet that was pulled up on the screen. Rafael gave the boy a tight smile and leaned close to speak to him in a lowered tone, in the hope the students on the group call wouldn’t hear.

“Noah, didn’t your mom say to ask _her_ for help when we’re all working?”

“She’s on the phone in her room and she told me only to interrupt her calls if it’s an emergency.” Noah replied, with the monotone nature of a child repeating instructions he’d heard hundreds of times before.

“Ok, I’ll help you- just give me a second ok?”

Noah nodded and skipped back to his room, content with that answer.

When Rafael turned back to the screen, a couple of his students were smiling. Not wanting to wait to see if any of them had any awkward questions, he bid them farewell, repeating his message about the PDF document and then ending the meeting. He ran his hands through his hair once, rolled his neck around to loosen some of the kinks before getting up to help Noah with his printer issues.

“Thank you,” Noah said as he pulled the worksheet from the printer tray and running back over to his desk with it.

“Do you need help with anything else?” Rafael asked him. The boy shook his head, reaching for a pencil to begin filling the sheet out. “Alright, I’m going back to work now. You hungry? We’ll probably have dinner soon.”

“A little,” Noah replied, sticking his tongue out as he drew. “I like it when you cook, Uncle Rafa. You’re better than Mom.”

Rafael grinned and ruffled the boy’s hair, before returning to the living room.

~~~~

Olivia let out a deep sigh, pulled her glasses off and swung her legs off the edge of her bed so she could stretch.

The work was different at home; she didn’t have the bullpen as a constant background noise for one thing. It had taken her a little while to become accustomed to making calls from her bedroom, spreading her notes and paperwork out across the mattress- and not just because she was putting in unpaid overtime of her own accord. Fin was managing just fine, despite his protests at having to be in command, and Amanda and Kat were working as hard as ever. Olivia was still feeling guilty about leaving them to fend for themselves, whilst she spent most of her time at home, but Noah was her first priority and the fact that he was safer for her having made these choices took the sting out of those feelings somewhat.

She stood up and twisted her back, feeling it click from sitting down for too long. Olivia decided to still dress as though she was going into the office, (she was every now and then video-calling the squad to check in) but sitting cross-legged on top of her bed had left wrinkles in her pants and blouse. Making a mental note to put them in the ironing pile before she went to bed that night, she left the bedroom in search of human company and maybe something to eat.

She was greeted by the image of a well-dressed lawyer and a small curly-haired boy, sat together on the couch, each with their own work spread out in front of them. Rafael had his laptop resting on the coffee table, and a pile of papers balanced on his knees, whilst Noah was mouthing along to one of his books silently. Olivia noticed that he had his school reading journal open next to him on the couch. Not wanting to disrupt whatever she was witnessing, she tucked herself against the wall and remained quiet.

“What does this word say?”

Rafael looked away from his work to lean closer to Noah, squinting at the page he was pointing to.

“Unexpected.” he informed the boy, who nodded and carried on with his reading.

Rafael scribbled something on a legal pad, clicked a few times on his laptop. He drew in a breath, and then puffed it out.

“One of the students in my class asked me for some extra time to finish an essay. What d’you think, should I give it to them?” the lawyer asked his small friend. Noah looked at Rafael with a deeply thoughtful expression.

“Why do they need more time? Are they sick?”

“Sort of,” Rafael answered. “He says he’s a little stressed out, a bit sad.” Noah swung his legs as they dangled off the couch.

“My teacher in school says if we’re ever feeling sad or ank- anksh-,”

“Anxious.”

“Yeah, anxious,” Noah repeated, the word still a little fumbled. “She says if we need help we should ask our teachers, and then they’ll be able to help us. Is the person asking you for help?”

Rafael peered back at the open email on his laptop, re-read it quickly.

“Yeah, I think he is.”

“Then you should give him extra time.” Noah replied, smiling. “You’re real good at helping people, everyone says so.”

Olivia felt her throat tighten with the threat of un-shed tears. She subconsciously raised a hand to her chest as she watched Rafael thank the boy and rub the top of his head affectionately.

She took in a deep breath, steeled her emotions and finished walking into the room, greeting her son with a kiss to his hair from behind the couch.

“This looks like a productive little session.”

“Uncle Rafa said we could work together,” Noah explained. “Because we’re both doing quiet tasks, we won’t dis-turb each other.”

Olivia grinned at the way Noah seemed to be picking up on the slightly more grown-up phrases the adults in his life used. Considering his early development was so stunted, he was certainly making up for lost time now he was older.

“That’s nice.” she told him, perching herself on the arm of the couch.

“I don’t have any more lessons today,” Rafael explained a little further, as he tapped away a reply to the email. “Didn’t see the point in us all sitting in separate rooms. The couch is big enough for everyone.”

“Any room for me?” Olivia asked with a teasing glint in her eye.

“Only if you’re quiet.” Noah told her, with an equally cheeky expression. From the other end of the sofa, Rafael snorted with barely suppressed laughter.

“Oh really?” she pressed, leaning forward to tickle her son’s waist as punishment. “Y’know when Uncle Rafa came to stay with us, I didn’t realize it would end with you both ganging up on me.”

“Stop Momma!” Noah shrieked with laughter, wriggling free from her grasp to the relative safety of Rafael’s side.

“We both know you’d win in a fight.” Rafael told her, lifting his arm so Noah could hide from Olivia’s reach as she took her son’s recently vacated spot on the couch.

“Hmm,” she narrowed her eyes at them both, ignoring the fluttering feeling in her breast at the cozy way they sat together. “I’m not convinced. But I’m too hungry to argue. What’s say we suspend the home-schooling for the day and eat?”

Noah cheered, jumping down from the couch to rush to the kitchen, already requesting spaghetti, even though it wasn’t that night of the week yet. Olivia took a moment to peer at the work Rafael had spread around him, enjoying seeing his handwriting up close again- it reminded her of the copious notes he used to make for trials.

“How’s it going, Professor?”

He fixed her a look out of the corner of his eye, before dropping his laptop back down onto the table and rolling the wrist of his writing hand.

“Too soon to say, I think. But no one’s dropped out of the class yet, so that’s got to be something.”

“As if they would,” she argued. “They wouldn’t be able to find a better teacher even if they tried.”

“As always, Olivia Benson, your faith in my abilities is unshakable.” he quipped, leaning forward to stretch his back and stand up. Noah was clanging pots and pans in the kitchen and he didn’t want him to make too much of a mess before either of them got there.

Watching him shuffle paperwork into a haphazard pile next to his laptop and then move into the kitchen to help Noah figure out what to eat, Olivia couldn’t help but think to herself that, despite his sarcasm, he was right.

Rafael Barba was probably the only person in her entire life she had ever had any faith in at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This one came from the idea of both Noah and Rafael having to start home-schooling, though obviously in very different ways. I really like writing their dynamic, and I love that other people think Barba would make a great educator too. (Plus I'm sure there's something about Rafael playing teacher that Olivia also appreciates.)


End file.
